Oceania Football Confederation
David Chung | website =http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/ }} The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football, consisting of New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, and other Pacific Island countries. It promotes the game in Oceania and allows the member nations to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. OFC is predominantly made up of island nations where association football is not the most popular sport. Consequently, the OFC has little influence in the wider football world, either in terms of international competition or as a source of players for high-profile club competitions. In 2006, the OFC's largest and most successful nation, Australia, left to join the Asian Football Confederation, leaving New Zealand as the largest federation within the OFC. David Chung is the current President of OFC. Martin Alufurai is the Senior Vice President, Lee Harmon is the Vice-President while Tai Nicholas is the General Secretary. Member nations OFC is made up of 11 full member associations and 3 associate members. * American Samoa * Cook Islands * Fiji * Kiribati1 * New Caledonia * New Zealand * Niue1 * Papua New Guinea * Samoa * Solomon Islands * Tahiti (French Polynesia) * Tonga * Tuvalu1 * Vanuatu 1. Associate member of the OFC, but non-FIFA member. Former members * Australia * Chinese Taipei *Northern Mariana Islands2 2. Associate member of the OFC, but non-FIFA member. History The confederation formed in 1966 with the following as founding members: * the Australian Soccer Federation (from 2005: Football Federation Australia) * New Zealand Soccer (subsequently New Zealand Football) * the Fiji Football Association * the Papua New Guinea Football Association Australia resigned as an OFC member in 1972 to pursue membership with the AFC, but they rejoined in 1978. Chinese Taipei were OFC member from 1975 to 1989. In 1996 FIFA confirmed the OFC as a full confederation and granted it a seat on the FIFA executive. In 1998 the OFC unveiled a new logo and an official magazine, entitled The Wave. On 24 May 2004, New Caledonia became the 11th member of the OFC. On 1 January 2006, Australia left the OFC again and joined the Asian Football Confederation. In 2008 an associate member, the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, also left OFC and in 2009 joined AFC as a quasi-member. In late 2009 Palau Soccer Association also applied for the same status with AFC. Competitions The winner of the OFC Football World Cup Qualifiers was allowed to compete in a two-legged home-and-away playoff with the team ranked fifth in the South American qualifying competition for a place in the 2006 World Cup. Since 1996, OFC members also play for the OFC Nations Cup, which is held every second year. The OFC also organises the Oceania Club Championship, a competition that has received surprisingly high levels of media support within New Zealand in its debut season. It serves primarily to determine the Oceania representative at the FIFA Club World Cup. In 2007, the OFC replaced the current club competition with the OFC Champions League which began in 2007. From 2007, the winner has no longer gained direct entry to the FIFA Club World Cup – but instead plays off against the host nation (currently Morocco) champion for the final spot in the tournament. It is not clear whether this is permanent, or even if it could change if the Oceania entrant were to outperform entrants from other Confederations. Of the confederation's current teams, only New Zealand has ever competed in the FIFA World Cup, competing in the 1982 World Cup and 2010 World Cup. Founding member Australia also competed in the World Cup finals, in 1974 and 2006. At the conclusion of Germany 2006, Australia's exit from the OFC was finalised (exiting formally on the 1 January 2006), being the last commitment of the transition before completely joining the Asian Football Confederation. The other minor exception to this has been the participation of the Solomon Islands in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. The winner of the OFC Cup also receives a berth in the FIFA Confederations Cup. New Zealand and Tahiti are the only current members of the OFC to have participated in this event. In the 2004 OFC Nations Cup, which doubled as the Oceania qualifying tournament for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the Solomon Islands unexpectedly made the finals after a 2–2 draw with Australia at the last round. This effectively denied New Zealand a place in the third group phase by one group point as Vanuatu had beaten New Zealand 4–2 in an early round upset of the second group phase. Australia won OFC Nation Cup final by beating the Solomons 5–1 in Honiara and 6–0 in Sydney to represent OFC in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup in Germany. The two teams met again in a two-legged World Cup qualifying final in September 2005 for the right to play the OFC representative for a place in the World Cup finals; Australia won 9–1 on aggregate (7–0 at home and 2–1 away) and progressed to the CONMEBOL–OFC play-off. Australia won this playoff on penalties after a 1–1 aggregate score after both legs of the playoff and after extra time, and qualified for the World Cup. List of competitions * OFC Nations Cup * Oceania Club Championship (defunct) * OFC Champions League replaces the Oceania Club Championship in 2007, winner qualifies for play-off for FIFA Club World Cup * OFC Champions League preliminary (Include club champions of developing countries – American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, with the winner qualifying to a playoff for a place in the OFC Champions League) * Oceania Cup Winners' Cup (defunct) * OFC President's Cup - invitational competition for clubs or under age international sides. * Melanesian Super Cup - A 3 team tournament established in 2014 between the Champion and the runner-up from Vanuatu and the Champion from the Solomon Islands. * AFC – OFC Challenge Cup (defunct) * OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament * OFC U-19 Championship * OFC U-17 Championship * Polynesia Cup (defunct) * Melanesia Cup (defunct) * Wantok Cup * Pacific Games * OFC U-16 Pacific Cup (defunct) merged into Olympic Qualifying Tournament Female * OFC Women's Nations Cup * OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament * OFC U-20 Women's Championship * OFC U-17 Women's Championship Futsal * Oceanian Futsal Championship Beach soccer * OFC Beach Soccer Championship FIFA World Cup qualifiers Oceania has sent representatives to the FIFA World Cup five times: Australia in 1974, 2006 and 2014, and New Zealand in 1982 and 2010. However, Australia was not an OFC member in 2006 and 2014 as they moved to AFC in 2006. Neither Australia in 1974 nor New Zealand in 1982 progressed beyond the first round, while Australia in 2006 advanced to the second round. OFC is the only FIFA confederation that does not have a guaranteed spot in the World Cup finals (a major reason for Australia's leaving the confederation in 2006 to join Asia). Between 1966 and 1982, OFC teams joined the Asian zone qualification tournament, while from 1986 onwards, the winners of the Oceanian zone qualification tournament have to enter the intercontinental play-offs against teams from other confederations in order to gain a spot in the FIFA World Cup finals. Senior OFC teams record OFC play-off record 1970 AFC–OFC Final Round '||2–1| ||1–0|1–1}} |} 1974 AFC–OFC Final Round '||2–21| ||0–0|2–2}} |} 1 Australia beat South Korea 1–0 in a play-off to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. 1986 UEFA–OFC play-off '||2–0| ||2–0|0–0}} |} 1990 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off '||1–0| ||1–0|0–0}} |} Israel played in the OFC zone for political reasons 1994 CONCACAF–OFC play-off ||3–3 (P)|' '||2–1|1–2}} |} 1994 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off ||1–2|' '||1–1|0–1}} |} 1998 AFC–OFC play-off '||(A) 3–3| ||1–1|2–2}} |} 2002 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off ||1–3|' '||1–0|0–3}} |} 2006 CONMEBOL – OFC play-off ||1–1 (P)|' '||1–0|0–1}} |} 2010 AFC–OFC play-off ||0–1|' '||0–0|0–1}} |} 2014 CONCACAF–OFC play-off '||9–3| ||5-1|4-2}} |} FIFA U-20 World Cup * See also: Men's U-20 World Cup Qualifiers FIFA U-17 World Cup * See also: Men's U-17 World Cup Qualifiers Women's World Cup Finals Australia is no longer an OFC member since 2006, when they joined AFC * See also Women's U-20 World Cup Qualifiers * See also Women's U-17 World Cup Qualifiers FIFA Confederations Cup ;Legend *1st – Champions *2nd – Runners-up *3rd – Third place *4th – Fourth place *GS – Group stage *Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament *q — Qualified; tournament in progress * •• — Qualified but withdrew * • — Did not qualify * × — Did not enter / Withdrew from the OFC Nations Cup or withdrew from the Confederations Cup / Banned * — Hosts See also * CONMEBOL * UEFA * CONCACAF * Confederation of African Football (CAF) * Asian Football Confederation (AFC) External links * Oceania Football Confederation Official Site * Oceania Football Confederation, Soccerlens.com. Retrieved: 09/10/2010. Category:Confederations